Education enhances conflict in Sudan

by Wamith Al-Kassab (Iraq)

Education often creates peace and reconciliation. In Sudan, the schools reinforced the deep and bloody conflict between north and south.In Sudan, education is an engine for the division between south and north, because the ideological differences are so large, An abyss of contradictions and strong distrust between the north and south makes a reconciliation in Sudan very difficult
Since the peace agreement in 2005, both parties worked to find solutions to a variety of inflammatory political issues, such as the distribution of oil revenues between north and south, the border question and not least the development of the education system.

Education has always been high on the priority list to the guerrilla movement SPLM in southern Sudan. Education and knowledge of history and culture of Southern Sudan is important to understand what the guerrillas are doing.

When the current President Omar al-Bashir took power in 1989 he undertook a national education reform based on Islamic values, even math books were quranic verses. Arabic became the language of instruction, and virtually all the history and culture of Southern Sudan was removed.

Ministry of Education was an important goal for Bashir and his party NCPs (National Congress Party) ,The cities in the south which was occupied by the Northern Sudan was now Bashir Islamic education. The opposition was great.

One of the reasons that young people in the south took to arms against the Bashir regime was that they were deprived of educational opportunities.

Education is often cited as an engine for peace and reconciliation, but education can also accelerate a conflict. And that is precisely what has happened in Sudan.

- Today it is hard to imagine that education can work nation-building in Sudan. Here, education is more an engine for the division between south and north, precisely because the ideological differences are so great,

Together group of European scientists, launches activity to present a history of southern Sudan, called A Concise History of South Sudan, before the crucial referendum to be held in January 2011.

It should – as the peace agreement of 2005 prescribes – is decided whether it will remain one or split into two. But the regime in northern Sudan has already threatened to delay.

If the referendum is not held as stipulated in the peace agreement, f it ends with a new civil war in the country that has been ravaged by conflict and war for over 50 years.

A conflict that has claimed two million lives and driven hundreds of thousands to flee.

- Unfortunately little faith that a continued union between North and South is possible, the ideological differences are very large. many fear South Sudan’s secession from the north is the only realistic option.

- many people want at least separation, and international observers say the same. Can South Sudan the opportunity to choose, they go for separation,

There are two fundamentally different worldviews colliding against each other. A fundamentalist Islamic ideology and to the north, and a more Christian and at the same time secular Western-oriented ideology within the liberation movement in the south, the SPLM.

- The fundamentalist Islamic value set in the north do not communicate well with the value set in the south,A fundamental problem is that both sides attach to (attribute) the other negative attributes that are considered more or less immutable or innate.

- It makes it difficult to communicate with the other party, because neither side seems to trust that seemingly positive rumblings from the other side is frankly intended, but often interpreted as a coincidence that does not mean a fundamental change for the better.

People in southern Sudan looking at the actions of people in the north as the result of an aggressive ideology. They have little faith that North Sudan will change its ideology.

They are convinced the ruling party in the north will have sovereignty over the Africans and that they will put obstacles in the way of referendum.
the same attitudes in the South among both old and young, men and women, people with and without education. The negative perceptions will continue from generation to generation.

Meanwhile, skepticism towards both the people and culture of Southern Sudan more numerous in the north, not least within the ruling party.

Muslim politicians have stated that South Sudan is in the way of Islam’s spread in Africa.

Although the ruling party of President Bashir has wrapped up the rhetoric in a more diplomatic language, skepticism shines through.

t it is difficult to build a nation when a large proportion of the population did not support the value of one vision. And then, when two different sets of values must come together, it becomes almost impossible.